The Return of the Friday Links

By: Taylor Rockwell | October 2nd, 2009

SI1 It was a little over a year ago that I first began writing for the Manchester United Offside, and what a year it has been. Another Premiership win, a Carling Cup victory, a semi-memorable Champions League Final appearance, and a rather turbulent summer have all come and gone since I first mocked John Terry way back on September 17, 2008.

So, in honor of the fact that some of you still find your way to this page, I figured I would attempt to bring back something that should aid you in your time wasting on this glorious Friday: random links! I started trolling the Sports Illustrated Vault the other day, and stumbled across a few articles regarding United. Further research unearthed a lot of interesting stories from years gone by. Without further ado, your links.

April 27, 1964 – “The Color of the Cup Final” – One of the earliest Sports Illustrated articles that I could find which mentioned United. Not the most amazing read, but interesting nonetheless.

October 12, 1964 – “Six Dreary Days, Then Saturday” – You get a sense that Sports Illustrated is on unfamiliar territory in this one, most notably when the author refers to Tottenham as “The Tottenham Hotspurs” and when he calls the sport “soccer football.” I really enjoy the underlying theme of “these soccer fans are just like us football fans. How about that?” Although author Jack Olsen does hit the nail on the head a few times: “It is such mano a mano confrontations, going on simultaneously all over the pitch, that make soccer the inscrutable game that it is and create a reportorial atmosphere in which 15 English sportswriters can see one game and write 15 different versions of it.” Truer words Jack, truer words… perhaps the reason why this blog even exists?

April 21, 1969 – “This Riotous Isle” – I heard the guys on the ESPN Soccernet Podcast discuss the recent Millwall-West Ham pitch invasion as essentially a bunch of men who fancy themselves hooligans trying to hearken back to “the good old days.” A valid observation in my book, and one that completely blows my mind. Partly because glorification of football violence is insanely annoying, but also because I can’t believe that that’s the way those stadiums used to be. Nor, it seems, can Wilfred Sheed in this Sports Illustrated article.

July 19, 1976 – “He’s Better, Almost Best” – Martha Smilgis’ coverage of George Best coming to the NASL’s Los Angeles Aztecs. David Beckham needs to read the bit about Best’s arrival in Los Angeles: “”He calls and asks if there is anything he can do. And to date, he’s never missed practice. There are no pretensions. He has no limo, no special food. At the first pregame meal, the team ordered steak while Best ordered cornflakes and bananas. Sixty-four cents instead of six bucks. Now the rest of the team orders cornflakes.”

March 3, 2003 – “Sports Beat” – SI’s reporting of the notorious “Shoe Incident” wherein a furious Sir Alex Ferguson accidentally volleyed a shoe into David Beckham’s facepiece. Ah, for a simpler time when Beckham wasn’t a walking advert for Armani…

si2 June 23, 2003 – “Big Bend” – Excellent article from Grant Wahl discussing David Beckham’s global appeal and why United were keen to unload him. It’s an interesting read for a variety of reasons, perhaps most notably because it represents Wahl’s early coverage of Beckham which would no doubt later influence his book “The Beckham Experiment.” Indeed, the description of his childhood is almost word-for-word in the book.

May 30, 2005 – “Fever Pitch” – A quick article reviewing Malcolm Glazer’s takeover of Manchester United. I thought the discussion of Manchester United becoming a brand rather than a club was both interesting and depressing, as they currently have an entire division devoted to brand management. The author (Franz Lidz) seems to desire the “glory days” of football when owners treated clubs as their playthings rather than as a business. I guess he must be pretty happy with the situation at City then?

Hopefully at least a couple of these article appeal on some level and, at the very least, have helped you kill off a few extra minutes. If you’ve got some good links of your own post them below or email me at manu@theoffside.com. Sunderland match preview should be up later. Until then, thanks Sports Illustrated!